Of cycling’s three Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia has a habit of producing chaos even when the script appears straightforward. Snowstorms, ambushes, gravel, illnesses, crashes, collapsing favourites and unexpected heroes are all stitched into the fabric of the race for the maglia rosa. But as the 2026 edition rolls out from Bulgaria towards Rome, one rider towers above the rest: two-time Tour de France winner, Jonas Vingegaard.
The Dane arrives at the Giro for the first time in his career and victory in Italy would elevate him into cycling’s most exclusive club, making him only the eighth rider to win all three Grand Tours.
Yet the Giro doesn’t always crown the obvious choice. The route itself looks designed to provoke instability. Two time trials favour the specialists, but the long Alpine stages and brutal summit finishes will expose any weakness by the third week. The Corsa Rosa has always rewarded resilience over raw power.
2026 Giro d'Italia contenders
Jonas Vingegaard
Everything points towards Jonas Vingegaard starting as the overwhelming favourite. Even on debut, the Visma-Lease a Bike leader arrives with the strongest Grand Tour résumé in the field and perhaps the most complete skillset too. Outside of Tadej Pogačar, Vingegaard’s climbing remains the benchmark in stage racing, but crucially for this Giro, the route’s time trials should allow him to build pressure on his rivals before the race hits the high mountains.
So what’s stopping Vingegaard? The biggest question is not whether he is strong enough to win, but whether he can survive the unpredictability of the Giro. The race is more frantic than the Tour, the weather more volatile and the racing often less controlled. Still, if he reaches the final week in contention, it is difficult to imagine anyone matching him on the decisive climbs.
Giulio Pellizzari
Since two-time Giro winner Vincenzo Nibali retired in 2022, Italian cycling has been waiting for its next Grand Tour superstar and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) increasingly looks like the answer. Still only in the earliest phase of his career, the young climber has transformed from exciting prospect into genuine contender.
Nibali himself singled him out as a possible podium finisher after his recent Tour of the Alps victory and impressive progression since last year’s Vuelta, where he finished sixth and won a stage. The Giro tends to amplify young Italian riders in a way no other race can and Pellizzari will carry the expectations of an entire nation over the next three weeks. What makes him dangerous is his willingness to race aggressively rather than defensively. If the established favourites hesitate for even a moment, Pellizzari is exactly the sort of rider capable of stealing time in the mountains.
Jai Hindley
Pellizzari isn’t Red Bull’s only pink jersey contender. The 2022 Giro winner, Jai Hindley, returns to terrain that suits him perfectly. Hindley’s Grand Tour career has always been closely intertwined with Italy – his diesel climbing style and ability to recover deep into the third week make him one of the peloton’s most natural Giro riders. The Australian rarely explodes spectacularly and that matters enormously in the Giro, where consistency often outweighs brilliance. With Red Bull likely balancing two ambitions, Hindley may also benefit from arriving with slightly less pressure than in previous years.
Adam Yates
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) remains one of the most reliable Grand Tour operators in the peloton. Even when he is not the outright favourite, he almost always leaves a three-week race having shaped the GC battle in some way. His climbing rhythm is perfectly suited to attritional mountain stages where attacks gradually dissolve into survival. Unlike some of the more explosive contenders, Yates thrives when the race becomes a test of sustained suffering rather than repeated accelerations.
The question, as ever, is whether he can transform consistency into outright victory. The Giro has often rewarded opportunists, and Yates doesn’t need to look beyond his own family to understand that…
Read more: 'I feel like it really touched a lot of people' – Simon Yates and the miracle of the Finestre
Egan Bernal
Few riders on the startlist carry the same emotional resonance as Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos), who after winning the 2021 edition suffered a life-threatening crash in January 2022. Five years on from his pink jersey win, the Colombian returns as one of the race’s most intriguing contenders. At his best, Bernal remains one of the purest climbers in the world, dancing out of the saddle with a fluidity few rivals can match. Injuries and setbacks have interrupted his trajectory repeatedly since that Giro victory, but signs of resurgence have slowly reappeared over the past two seasons.
The Giro also suits his temperament. Bernal races instinctively, aggressively and with visible emotion — qualities that often thrive in Italy’s chaotic mountain stages. If he can stay healthy through the first two weeks, he becomes a serious threat.
Other GC contenders at the 2026 Giro d’Italia
Beyond the headline favourites, the 2026 Giro is packed with riders capable of reshaping the general classification. Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) continues his evolution from breakaway specialist into genuine GC rider after an impressive 2025 campaign. His teammate Giulio Ciccone’s attacking style guarantees entertainment whether or not he targets GC.
Alongside Yates, Jan Christen and Jay Vine provide UAE with multiple tactical cards in the mountains, while Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) remains one of the peloton’s most dangerous long-range climbers.
Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) are both capable of riding quietly into the top five, whereas Enric Mas (Movistar) arrives searching for the Grand Tour performance that has repeatedly threatened to happen without fully materialising.
Michael Storer (Tudor Procycling) is another rider impossible to ignore after recent stage race form, while Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) has already won two Giro stages and climbs with the sort of explosiveness that can crack open a race unexpectedly. Bahrain also have experience through Damiano Caruso, runner-up to Bernal in 2021.
Then there is Sepp Kuss – perhaps the ultimate wildcard. If Visma grant him freedom alongside Vingegaard, he could become either the Dane’s greatest ally or an unexpected contender himself.
The sprinters at the 2026 Giro d’Italia
The Giro’s flat stages should favour primarily to Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), whose raw power and familiarity with Italian roads make him the obvious favourite for the ciclamino jersey.
The competition is strong. Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché) brings brute force and versatility, while Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM) continues to develop into one of the fastest finishers in the peloton.
Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) remains dangerous in straightforward bunch sprints and Casper van Uden (Team Picnic PostNL) could add to the stage he won last year.
The stage hunters at the 2026 Giro d’Italia
Every Giro needs riders willing to detonate breakaway stages or launch late attacks on flatter days. Alec Segaert (Bahrain-Victorious) and Ben Turner (Netcompany Ineos) will target breakaways on rolling terrain, while Turner’s teammate Filippo Ganna should dominate the time trials and may even hunt the maglia rosa early in the race.
Read more: Tower of power: the story of Filippo Ganna
Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost) and Nico Denz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) are exactly the kind of opportunists who thrive in transitional Giro stages where the peloton hesitates for too long. Meanwhile Mick van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Jhonatan Narváez and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) will spend three weeks searching for stage raids and tactical chaos.
Prediction
It’s hard to look beyond Jonas Vingegaard winning this Giro.
